Shloka 24
पापानुबन्धं को नु तं कामयेत क्षमैव ते ज्यायसी नोत भोगा: | यत्र भीष्म: शान्तनवो हतः स्याद् यत्र द्रोण: सहपुत्रो हतः स्यात्,जो पापकी जड़ है, उस क्रोधकी इच्छा कौन करेगा? आपकी दृष्टिमें तो क्षमा ही सबसे श्रेष्ठ वस्तु है, वे भोग नहीं, जिनके लिये शान्तनुनन्दन भीष्म तथा पुत्रसहित आचार्य द्रोणकी हत्या की जाय
sañjaya uvāca |
pāpānubandhaṃ ko nu taṃ kāmayeta kṣamaiva te jyāyasī nota bhogāḥ |
yatra bhīṣmaḥ śāntanavo hataḥ syād yatra droṇaḥ sahaputro hataḥ syāt ||
Sañjaya said: “Who would ever desire that anger which is bound up with sin? In your judgment, forgiveness alone is the higher good—not the pleasures for whose sake Bhīṣma, the son of Śāntanu, would be slain, and Droṇa too would be slain together with his son.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
Anger that leads to sinful consequences is not worth desiring; forgiveness (kṣamā) is ethically superior to worldly enjoyments, especially when those gains would require killing revered elders like Bhīṣma and the teacher Droṇa (with his son).
Sañjaya voices a moral warning in the pre-war context: pursuing pleasure or advantage through wrath-driven conflict would entail the death of eminent figures on the Kuru side—Bhīṣma and Droṇa—highlighting the grave cost of escalation.